After two consecutive goalless draws against Sierra Leone and Egypt, the Zambia U-20 men’s national team has finally claimed its first victory at the 2025 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations. The Young Chipolopolo Boys edged Tanzania 1-0 on Tuesday evening, courtesy of a last-gasp penalty converted by Joseph Sabobo Banda in the 10th minute of stoppage time.
Zambia dominated from the outset, creating several scoring opportunities, but were unable to find the net until the dying moments of the match when they were awarded a penalty.
“It was a tough game for us. It wasn’t an easy game. Tanzania came to the party,” said Zambia head coach Boyd Mulwanda after the match. “I think they knew that if they got a positive result from this game, they were going to have chances also to qualify for the quarter-finals.”
Mulwanda breathes a sigh of relief
Mulwanda expressed optimism that the hard-fought win would serve as a morale booster ahead of Zambia’s crucial final group stage match against South Africa on Friday.
“I think it’s a motivation for the boys going to the next match against South Africa on Friday. They fought hard, and they got a positive result. I think this result is the result that we needed to get a win, at least for us to know that we can win a match. And going into Friday’s game, I think it has given the boys the confidence to work extra hard.”
He continued: “We’ll keep on working extra hard. We keep on pushing the boys to give them the confidence that they should convert the chances that we are creating. That’s the thing that we’ll be working on in training starting tomorrow. We’ll try and see how best we can try to convert the chances that we are creating.”
With this victory, Zambia now sits third in Group A with five points from three matches, trailing group leaders Sierra Leone (7 points) and second-placed South Africa (6 points). Behind them is Egypt in fourth place with 4 points, with Tanzania is rock bottom with no points.
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